Nuns greet Pope Francis as he arrives for the closing Holy Mass of Asian Youth Day at South Korea’s Haemi Fortress Sunday.

Reuters

What do you get when you mix thousands of young people from all over Asia and Pope Francis? A sort of Catholic Woodstock.

With the 77-year-old pontiff presiding over the closing Mass for Asian Youth Day, the soundtrack for Sunday’s two-hour service at Haemi Fortress in western Korea was filled from beginning to end with the kind of drum fills, slap bass and synthesizer runs associated with an actual rock concert — or at the very least, an evangelical Protestant megachurch. There was even an electric guitar solo as Pope Francis led the congregants in Communion.

The mood was buoyant, helped by rain that left the fortress grounds damp and muddy, but which cleared just in time for the Pope’s arrival. The 2,000-odd young Catholics from across the continent — many of them wearing bright teal rain ponchos over lime green polo shirts — waved national flags, chanted like soccer fans and accompanied the hymns and worship songs with coordinated hand motions.

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Unlike the Pope’s previous two Masses, few women covered their heads with veils and more than a few attendees had tattoos. When the big screens zoomed in on worshippers, many obliged with heart signs and goofy peace signs — even during the Holy Father’s homily.

And the Pope, who drew laughter for his playfully forceful appeal for Asia’s youth to “wake up,” was treated to spontaneous bursts of “Francesco, we love you!”

Readings and prayers came in Tagalog, Bahasa Indonesian, Hindi, Japanese, Laotian and Korean, a reflection of the church’s ambitions across a continent that has more people than any other, but relatively few Catholics.

Speaking to reporters just before the Mass, Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi referenced the Pope’s earlier remarks about opening dialogue with the Asian nations with which the Vatican has no diplomatic ties. While China is the obvious case here, Father Lombardi also ticked off North Korea, Vietnam, Myanmar, Laos, Brunei and Bhutan as countries with which the Pope would like to build ties.

Underscoring that appeal, Bishop Peter Kang, who heads the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Korea, noted on stage after Communion that while Catholic World Youth Days are always attended by the pontiff, Francis’ trip marked the first papal audience for an Asian Youth Day.

Worshippers from Indonesia, the site of the next Asian Youth Day, in 2017, were particularly energetic. Fernando Julius, a 24-year-old lifelong Catholic from Jakarta, said he got to shake Pope Francis’ hand. He cried afterwards.

“It was unbelievable,” he said. “Many people came to see him, but we were the lucky ones.”

But what makes Francis different from an actual rock star?

For Mr. Julius, the answer was simple: Francis, in contrast even to the pope before him, is simple in his lifestyle, and “very close to the youth.”

“I read about him a lot when he became pope, and he’s very humble,” he said. “Just look at his car.”